Shock at sickening attack on teenager

Screenshots of a video show youths beating a teenager in Beijing.

Police and security officials are investigating a shocking video that appears to show youths beating a teenager unconscious, then urinating on him as he lies on the ground.

According to unconfirmed claims online, the victim of the assault died.

Xinhua news agency reported on Sunday night that the attack had taken place in the Chaoyang district of Beijing.

A video clip of the incident appeared on the Youku video site on Saturday.

While it was deleted yesterday, stills of the attack have gone viral, leading to widespread anger and condemnation.

It appears to show four youths, including one filming the attack, slapping, punching and kicking another boy on the head, body and legs in a sustained assault lasting more than eight minutes.

Then one boy throws a large brick at the victim, striking him on the head.

The boy collapses to the ground, and as he lies motionless his attackers urinate on him, pictures show.

The Ministry of Public Security said it has deployed officials to investigate and asked anyone with information to come forward.

Trawling the web

Shocked web users yesterday conducted a "human flesh search engine" to identify and expose the individuals responsible.

After trawling the web for leads, some netizens claimed that the attack took place at Naixifang Village, in Chaoyang District, Beijing.

They claimed that the victim, said to be a 13-year-old boy, died of his injuries.

Web users identified the youth filming the attack as an eight-grader called Chang Xubao.

One of the attackers said on his QQ instant messaging account that he wanted to hand himself in to police, it was claimed.

Beijing police had not confirmed these allegations yesterday, saying only that an investigation is ongoing.

Other web users had claimed the attack took place in Lingbi County in eastern China's Anhui Province, involving students from Huangwan Middle School.

The school yesterday said that it had no evidence of this and called for rumor mongers to be punished.